Op-Ed: Photo Essay — Old push bars renovation Special

Vancouver
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This photo essay is in no way about travel shots and visited places rich in history and traditions, neither lovely pets nor colours of nature. It's about some rust and unattractive look converted into something nicer, more practical, and protective.

The time has come to do something with the rusty push bars in my 4x4. The van has been serving me in lots of outdoor adventures from which I bring a lot of pictures published that I publish in Digital Journal.

I decided to reward the lovely vehicle and give its front visible icons a new look, decent protection and change their colour. Not really an overhaul but still some renovation. Everything happened some 3-4 metres from living room and the table with everyday food, in the scenery from own backyard.

Rusty welds and unattractive look of white push bars were main reason for the renovation project.

The white welded parts of the push bars started getting rusty in moist climate of Beautiful British Columbia. The colour of rust contrasted with the original white colour and everything looked ugly. I had to wait a bit for better weather to make sure that the entire van is dry enough to start applying a new colour to the push bars.

Masking the vehicle's body, front headlights and other parts from ever present overspray takes some time, everybody who has done this type of job before can confirm this simple and true statement. Old newspapers and masking tape is all we need at this point to start masking job. Oh, a lot of attention to details and quite amount of patience is really necessary to complete this tedious and very time consuming step.

Once all the masking was done, I got rid of the excess of rust by polishing the affected places of the push bars and then used the rust paint in spray, fast drying, with black and glossy colour. All spraying was done in well aired spot when wearing protective mask, goggles and rubber gloves.